Two Sides, One Coin
by sweetstothesweetfarewell
Summary: Twenty years ago, twin sisters went missing. Now, days before the anniversary, one of them walks into the station. The mystery is that she has no idea which one she is or where the other sister is.


Author's Note: An asterisk indicates the classic face flashback.

xxx

**July 3rd 1993**

**Whoomp! (There It Is)- Tag Team**

_The five of them were gathered in the basement, as they always were. The lights were dimmed, a haze of smoke betraying what the group was doing, along with the smell that clung to the furniture as well as their hair and clothes. None of them had work the next day, so the entire night was laid out before them._

_Two girls, three guys. The girls were identical twins Shoshanna and Clementine Lane, who were called Sheena and Clem by everyone that mattered. They were slight, pale with gray eyes and dark brown hair that to just above Sheena's shoulders and to the middle of Clem's back. Both girls stood at five-three, with Sheena maybe a centimeter taller. She was older, having been born five minutes before Clem._

_Liam Carter was one of the three guys, six feet with wild black curls and warm brown eyes that often shone with mirth. He was toned, nearly muscular and always seemed to have at least stubble, if not a beard. His best friend was Brandon Walker, who was shorter by a couple inches and a bit pudgier, his red hair making him stand out in a crowd. Usually his green eyes were looking at his notebook and his fingers were usually stained with ink from the cheap pens he insisted on getting from the dollar store._

_Hooper rounded out the group, a blonde man only a few inches taller than the girls, with blue eyes that seemed to always be either tinged red or glazed over. He had a first name, of course, but he preferred to be called Hooper and they obliged him._

"_What do you guys wanna do tonight?" Sheena asked from her perch on the lawn chair that she had made her own. It had ribbons weaved into it, stickers and a bottle holder for her ever present bottle of wine grafted onto one of the arm rests. _

"_I have no idea," Clem said, biting the corner of her lip, flicking her eyes to the ceiling. As usual, she and Liam were on the couch, her head on his shoulder and his head resting on top of hers. They claimed to be just friends and seemed to believe it, making them the only two who did._

"_Why not stay here and party? Tomorrow is going to be like a whole...thing," Brandon said from the armchair between the lawn chair and couch. _

"_I thought I was the guy who could barely form sentences," Hooper joked as he rolled a new joint. _

"_Dude, you get my point." Brandon muttered and went back to flipping through the box of tapes on his lap. The basement door swung open and out of habit, Sheena leapt up and began to wave her arms to try and clear the smoke. Liam laughed and took a sip of his beer as Norah Lane, the twins' mother walked down the steps, sniffing the air._

"_You act like I don't know what you get up to down here," she said in a teasing voice as she grabbed a beer from the fridge near the table that Hooper had taken over. Her daughter's friends were here almost as much as they were at their own places, which may have been odd given that they were all in their twenties, Clem and Sheena the youngest at 22 and Liam being the oldest, having turned 25 in March,a month before Brandon had. No one was sure about Hooper,who did not believe in birthdays, but they put him in their age group. "We need more beer upstairs...and down here." There were only a few cans left, just enough for tonight. _

"_We're gonna get more tomorrow," Sheena said. _

"_Go now. The store is going to be swamped tomorrow with partiers," Norah suggested. With a sigh, Sheena nodded and got up, cursing her mother for being right once more. Clem got up as well, since she had a VW bus and that meant they could get more than if they took her sister's Beetle. _

"_Be right back," Clem said and gave Liam a mock salute before she began to climb up the stairs. _

_(cut to a missing person filer on a telephone pole, showing both Lane twins)_

xxx

July 1st 2013

The article got a mention on the front page of that day's Daily News, but of course something more current and important had gotten to actually have the cover. But some ignored it and flipped right to the article that was advertised on the left side of the page. Kat Miller was one of those people. She had been only a couple years younger than the missing twins when it had happened and her mother had been paranoid for months afterward.

The story was simple. Twenty-two year old twins Shoshanna and Clementine Lane gone out to get beer in the late afternoon, the drive to the liquor store less than ten minutes from their house. When they had not come back after a couple hours, their friends had gone to look for them and after the forty eight hour waiting period had passed, a search party had been formed.

One of the larger pictures in the article was an amateur photograph of Clementine's burned up van. That had been the only trace of the twins found.

There was a quote from their mother near the end of the article. _It's been twenty years since they walked out my front door but I'm still waiting for them to walk through, with a twelve pack under each arm and a crazy story to tell. And I'll always be waiting. _

Kat could not imagine the pain that Norah Lane was feeling. She had been a single mother and those girls had been her life, something Kat knew very well. Losing Veronica would just crush her, pulling her to depths that she could not even consider thinking about.

"I remember that job," Jeffries said as he walked by where she was sitting. It was hard not to notice the article, and it had been at the back of his mind since he had walked past a newspaper box that morning and had seen the cover of the paper, the words barely processed before he had continued on his way.

"The Lane twins?" Vera piped up. Jeffries nodded. "That was a mess. I got assigned to the house. The mom was a wreck. Couldn't stop crying, didn't sleep. It was ugly."

"Of course it was," Kat snapped, her eyes narrowing at him. "That poor woman lost both her daughters at once. God, I can't even imagine how that must feel."

Vera opened his mouth, but decided not to say anything. It would be for the best. He had a feeling that he would lose this fight and he had been learning to pick his battles. He walked back out to the bullpen, his eyes falling on the woman just standing there, looking lost. "Need help with anything?" he called out.

"They told me to come up here when I asked about old cases," she said. The woman was in her early forties, pale with dark red hair in a ponytail. She wore horn-rimmed glasses and the classic jeans, t-shirt and sneakers combo that worked for all ages.

"Yeah, this is the place," he said. "What can I do for you?"

The woman walked closer and that was when he noticed that she held a copy of the Daily News. "I have some information about the Lane twins," she said softly, holding the paper open to the color pictures of the twins, Sheena on the left and Clem on the right.

"You do?" Vera was unable to hide his shock and the woman nodded.

"I'm one of them," she said, her eyes on his face.

"Which one?" Now he sounded skeptical.

"I was kind of hoping you would tell me," she said, her eyes darting back to the picture. The woman looked wistful for a moment and she looked back up.** "I don't remember who I am. But I know my own face."

xxx

A/N 2: A double asterisk indicates that the woman is flashing back to both of the twins faces. If that makes sense. It does in my head. Yes, if anyone is wondering this is somewhat inspired by the Laura Lippman novel _What the Dead Know _ and by extension, the Lyon sisters, who disappeared from the area I grew up in back when my parents were young. I grew up hearing about them and their story always fascinated me.


End file.
